Wyoming Wind Could Save California Money, Study Says

A new study says energy generated from Wyoming wind could help California residents save up to one billion dollars annually in electricity costs. California’s renewable portfolio standard – or RPS – requires the state to get 33-percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. The Wyoming Infrastructure Authority commissioned the economic analysis. The agency’s Executive Director, Loyd Drain, says not all renewables are made equal and wind power from Wyoming is a good option for California.

“There’s no doubt that there’s ample renewable energy to be developed to satisfy California’s 33-percent RPS. But there is a question as to the cost and to the impact on rate payers. So, if you look at cost you have a hard time not considering Wyoming wind,” Drain says.

The cost of technologies like solar, future tax incentives for renewables, and the cost of building transmission lines could affect just how much California’s potential saving would add up to. The proposed TransWest Express Transmission Project would be able to deliver Wyoming wind energy to California before its 2020 deadline.

Julianne Couch is the author of Traveling the Power Line, a book about the many energy sources we tap into for our power needs – from oil and gas, to wind, to solar and uranium.

Couch teaches at the University of Wyoming and has also written Jukeboxes and Jackalopes: A Wyoming Bar Journey and Waking Up Western: Collected Essays. She now lives in Iowa but stopped by the studio to talk to Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov about her book.

A group of University of Wyoming researchers received $508,000 from NASA to study aerodynamics and wind resistance at Wyoming’s Supercomputing Center.

The U.S. Department of Energy reports that Wyoming has one of the highest capacities for wind power production in the country. But University of Wyoming Mathematics Professor Stefan Heinz says most wind farms aren’t arranged as efficiently as they could be. He says the wake of one turbine often disrupts the turbines around it, reducing efficiency.